Cheek Pieces is a new to market horse racing tipster service that comes courtesy of the Betting Gods stable of tipsters. The selections are provided by tipster Neil.
Introduction to Cheek Pieces
Something that is talked about both quite a lot, and not nearly enough, in this industry is that ups and downs are inevitable. I’ve seen some fantastic services launch, and on a long enough time scale, they will all face some point where they lose money. There are no sure things in betting. The thing is, these downturns don’t have to be the end of the world. Ultimately, that is a big part of why I’m such a strong advocate for taking a long term approach to your betting. Sometimes, balking at the first sign of a losing streak can cost you money.
This is very evident when looking at todays review subject, Cheek Pieces. Betting Gods are incredibly transparent about all of their services, and had you been a member of this in February, you may have been concerned by a few losing months. Since then though, this is a service that has gone from strength to strength with a period of unparalleled consistency. Then there was a dip, but Neil already seems to be back on to winning ways, a massive positive. But if you’d jumped ship, you’d have lost out on all of those positives.
The thing is, there are a lot of positives here really. Some of these things simply stem from the fact that Neil is a tipster who seems to have both feet planted firmly on the ground. Other elements come from the fact that Betting Gods are a well oiled machine and one of the better tipster stables out there (in my opinion). But the bottom line of it is that Cheek Pieces is a service that is really quite exciting. And with all of that in mind, I am really quite eager to get into it and see what is what.
What Does Cheek Pieces Offer?
One of the things that immediately stands out to me about Cheek Pieces is that everything is… well, it’s what I want to see. Fundamentally, this is a straightforward affair, but there is also enough variance to demonstrate that Neil isn’t simply doing things for the sake of it. Something that is frustratingly common in the tipster industry.
Before I get into the betting side of things and what Cheek Pieces entails, I want to talk a little bit about the management of the service. I don’t tend to hide the fact that I have a lot of admiration for what Betting Gods do and how they go about conducting their business. They are transparent, they provide excellent service, and their approach tends to be very much customer focused. And of course, all of this applies here.
As you might expect from any modern tipster service, Neil’s selections are of course made available directly via email. These can be issued Monday through Saturday and are typically made available around 8am. Something that should be noted however is that Cheek Pieces is a long way from a daily service. In actual fact, it can be pretty far from it with Betting Gods’ proofing demonstrating that there are often periods without bets.
Receiving selections via email isn’t the only option though. As is the case with all services from Betting Gods, there are a few other ways of accessing tips. There is a special members area of Cheek Pieces, but the best option in my opinion is to simply receive the selections through the Betting Gods app. This delivers them directly to your phone making it very difficult to miss bets.
Now, let’s talk about the bets themselves. In the sales material for Cheek Pieces, we are told that you are simply placing “straightforward win bets”, but that isn’t actually the case. Instead, Neil takes advantage of a variety of win and each way bets, all with differing stakes (something I want to discuss a little later).
As you might expect, those each way bets tend to be saved for the horses that have longer odds. And there are definitely a good few of these. Betting Gods show that the lowest historical odds come in at just evens, but they go as high as 100/1 (which, as it happened did lose. But those bigger bets do still win). For context, the average odds for Cheek Pieces come in at 8.57 at the time of writing.
What is stand out about this number though is that it doesn’t include BOG. The way Cheek Pieces is operated, Neil does provide advice around odds (with the most commonly used bookies all being big names that you shouldn’t have problems with) . But in theory, you could shop around and use an odds comparison site to maximise your potential odds and also profit.
Earlier on, I talked about the fact that Neil doesn’t bet every day, but that doesn’t mean that Cheek Pieces is a low volume service either. Actually, pretty far from it. An average month will produce around 55 – 60 bets. It’s just that whilst some days have no bets, particularly busy days can end up providing 5 or more.
So, let’s now address the stakes. Because all of this can add up. Fortunately, Neil is pretty prudent with how much you are staking with Cheek Pieces. Most bets are advised at just 1 point per bet (0.5 points each way) with the occasional bet being just half a point or very occasionally a 2 point bet.
With Betting Gods advising a bank of 150 points, there is more than enough there for you to ride out any losing streaks that you might encounter. But one of the key selling points of Cheek Pieces as a service is that the biggest period of drawdown for the service to date is just 37 points. Over the course of a fully year that is a hugely impressive result.
Interestingly, you might expect to see quite a high strike rate for Cheek Pieces given this, but it actually comes in at “just” 25% based off Betting Gods’ proofing. That might not sound impressive, but given the average odds, it shows that there is a strong foundation for long term profit. Something that ultimately is the end goal of any tipster service.
How Does Cheek Pieces Work?
Rather unfortunately, Betting Gods don’t actually talk about what the selection process behind Cheek Pieces actually involves. This is about standard for pretty much all of their tipster services and there is little ignoring that it definitely counts as a negative here. After all, it isn’t an unreasonable expectation to understand what it is you are getting yourself into.
The thing is, that isn’t the be all and end all in my opinion. Not where Betting Gods are involved. The fact of the matter is that whilst we aren’t given that insight for Cheek Pieces, I know that as a tipster stable, they don’t take on board services for the fun of it. There is a rigorous standard that has to be adhered to and that honestly goes a long way for me.
If I were to speculate, I would hazard a guess that Neil is looking at taking advantage of value on bets. There is often a decent amount of movement when it comes to prices and odds which suggests that he is using his own ratings or calculations for Cheek Pieces. Of course, it would be nice to simply be told this, but it is what it is. At the end of the day, it seems unreasonable to expect a tipster to give away everything that they are doing.
What I will say is that if you’re looking to get an idea of what you can expect from Cheek Pieces, you could do a lot worse than the proofing that Betting Gods provide. This is incredibly comprehensive and shows all tips Neil has provided going back to January. It isn’t that direct understanding of things, but I think that it’s pretty fair to say that it gives you an idea of what you can expect from the service in the longer term.
What is the Initial Investment?
If you want to sign up to Cheek Pieces there are a few different options available, all of which vary wildly in terms of what you’re ultimately paying and what kind of value is on offer. The first option is a monthly subscription. This is priced at just £1.99 (plus VAT) for your first 15 days. Once this has elapsed, the costs go up to £27 per month.
Representing better value is the quarterly subscription. This is priced at £40 plus VAT for your first quarter (or £30 if you hang around on the Betting Gods sales page for a bit), after which the price becomes £80 every 3 months. Ultimately, that isn’t a massive saving, but it is better than nothing.
Of note is the fact that Betting Gods provide a full 30 day money back guarantee on all of their services and Cheek Pieces is no different. This is backed up by the fact that the service is sold through Clickbank, but honestly, they are generally very good at ensuring that this is adhered to.
What is the Rate of Return?
Now we come to the most important part of Cheek Pieces, and that is how much you can expect to earn. On paper, the answer is a little disappointing. Since January, Neil has turned a profit of some 110 points. I’ll be honest, that isn’t great. In fact, it’s about half what I’ve seen some other tipsters produce as profit. But there is another important figure that Betting Gods mention.
You see, what you’re looking at is an ROI of 18.77%. That is bloody respectable. But more than simply being a respectable number, I believe that this can be maintained. Coming back to my initial thoughts on Cheek Pieces, there has been a startlingly consistent run in terms of profit, and I believe that this is likely to continue. As such, whilst the points profit might not look good, you can see that this actually has potential to be a decent longer term investment.
Conclusion for Cheek Pieces
Measuring the success of a tipster service is a very difficult thing to do. Because there aren’t necessarily any definitive answers to this. There is a lot of variation on what a success is. In the case of Cheek Pieces, it is quite a difficult thing. You see, the bottom line here should be simply that whilst Neil has performed well, 110 points just isn’t that much.
The truth is that I’ve seen various services this year alone that might have produced a points profit that is 3 times this amount in a year. On paper, this is a relatively mediocre result. But it is everything that surrounds this result that matters. You see, whilst those other services may produce 3 times the profit, there is often more than 3 times the risk that Cheek Pieces offers. I’ve seen drawdowns that would wipe out a betting bank. That doesn’t happen here.
For my money, the appeal of Cheek Pieces is simply that it is incredibly consistent. Sure, there have been ups and downs, but ultimately the profits build on themselves nicely. And that is something that the ROI ultimately demonstrates. Sure, you might only be taking home an average of 9 points per month (before your subs), but taking that reliably is a better option in my mind than being 30 points up one month, then 30 points down the next.
The thing is, that is quite a consideration. If I’m blunt, whilst I have my own personal preferences about what I want to see from a tipster service, but I can also see how you might not be over the moon with the limited returns from Cheek Pieces. In actual fact, I can see this being a real deal breaker for some people. And that would be a very reasonable position to take.
There is little point in trying to pretend that your money couldn’t arguably be put to work elsewhere for better returns. But that ignores the point of Cheek Pieces for me. What I look at here is a service that has the lofty goal of long term, sustainable, and consistent profit. In my opinion, that puts what Neil is doing as one of the better services on the market.
But it isn’t the be all and end all. Honestly, this is one of those things where I have to take a bit of a cop out answer. Whilst I think that ultimately, however you want to look at it, this is a good service. For some people, this will be a really solid option that will produce pretty consistent but modest profits. Thumbs up there. For other people though, Cheek Pieces will be a service that simply isn’t delivering compared to the wider market.
